Teardown

If you ever dreamt of becoming a TNT operator or if perforating walls with a 10-pound hammer is your secret knack — download Teardown and bring the bloody ruckus. 

Graphics

Teardown on PC has a sui generis voxel reality. Voxel is like a cousin of pixel, only it’s three-dimensional. Hence, barns, houses, boat stations, massive truck garages — as well as every single piece of architecture — is made of them.

And the best part is how these voxels interact with your decisions. Like Lego building blocks, they nicely crumble when being “doctored” with a sledge, rocket launcher or explosives.

This voxel “anatomy” of Teardown is nicely complemented with quite realistic physics. Every massive flame, explosion or a single mighty bang on a wall with a fire extinguisher leaves a satisfying aftertaste of vandalism.

Gameplay

Teardown introduces a novelty storyline. Here you are a thief who dabbles as a demolition expert. And what a quandary is that you’re in debt and your loan sharks are the mafia.

They task you with a number of brain-bending, but identical jobs: steal a flash drive, valuable painting, evidence against the local capo, and other similar artifacts.

As always, easier said than done. To nick a sought-after item, you have to be as creative as a Hungarian burglar and quick like a peregrine falcon. 

The problem is, once you penetrate the target building, you have very little time before the alarm goes off and the SWAT parachutes in your area. This is why, Teardown is only 50% about vandalizing. The other half of the game has more strategy than Sun Tzu.

But there’s also a Creative mode, in which you can unleash your Takeshi Kitano and orchestrate massive kablooies and firings. Pandemonium is one Teardown download away from you.

Replayability

Even though the game revolves around “steal & smash” concept, it hardly gets boring. The X-factor here is a bit tough, but still an enjoyable difficulty level.

Like a veteran saboteur, you’ll spend a good hunk of time planning and calculating. Penetration points, operation algorithm, retreat route — not a single detail must be forgotten, otherwise your master plan will flop.

Conclusion

Teardown deserves to be in the top place of Steam’s charts, where it is right now. This game nicely marries the dumb and violent fun of demolition with subtle elements, which involve careful strategizing and irreproachable timing. 

For now, the game is still evolving. It has a lot of unexplored parts, which can make it truly phenomenal. So, If the mentioned ingredients sound like your kind of game brew — preorder Teardown. It’s in Early Access yet.